2018 FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX

Post by **Big Kev** » Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:46 am

2018 FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX

Shanghai International Circuit
Lap data
Lap length 5.412km (3.363 miles)
Race laps 57
Race distance 308.238km (191.53 miles)
Pole position Left-hand side of the track
Lap record* 1’31.447 (Pedro de la Rosa, 2005)
Fastest lap 1’29.527 (Mark Webber, 2005, fourth practice)
Maximum speed 321kph (199.46 mph)
DRS zone/s (race)
Distance from grid to turn one 265m
Full throttle 66%
Longest flat-out section 1205m
Downforce level Medium
Fuel use per lap 1.7kg
Time penalty per lap of fuel 0.054s

UK Times
Friday 13th April 2018
Chinese Grand Prix Free Practice 1: 10:00-11:30 (UK time: 3:00-4:30)
Chinese Grand Prix Free Practice 2: 14:00-15:30 (UK time: 7:00-8:30)
Saturday 14th April 2018
Chinese Grand Prix Free Practice 3: 11:00-12:00 (UK time: 4:00-5:00)
Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying: 14:00 (UK time: 7:00)
Sunday 15th April 2018
Chinese Grand Prix: 14:10 (UK time: 7:10)

Previous Winners
2017 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2016 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes
2015 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2014 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2013 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari
2012 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes
2011 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
2010 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
2009 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2008 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
2007 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
2006 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2005 Spain Fernando Alonso Renault
2004 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Ferrari

Videos

Hamilton 2017 on board

Alonso 2007 on board

Facts from the last race
With 182 world championship race victories, McLaren has more F1 wins than any team bar Ferrari. However Bahrain marked their 100th race since the last time one of their drivers stood on the top step of the podium.

While the team blamed its struggles over the past three seasons on the shortcomings of its Honda power unit, those races only account for 60% of this win-less streak.

Jenson Button scored the team’s last win in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix in a car powered by a Mercedes V8. Since then they started a further 38 races with Mercedes power (19 V8, 19 V6 hybrid turbo), 60 with Honda and two with Renault.

There was some consolation for McLaren in that at this early stage they are ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ championship and Fernando Alonso is fourth in the drivers’ points standings.

But it will not have gone unnoticed in Woking that the team’s cars were out-qualified by both Honda-powered Toro Rossos on Saturday, and that Pierre Gasly came home fourth for the team on Sunday. Gasly’s first points finish equalled the best result Toro Rosso has scored since Sebastian Vettel’s victory for them at Monza in 2008.

That was the first of 49 wins for Vettel, the most recent of which came in a race which also marked his 200th career start.

Vettel is the 18th driver to reach a double century. The last to do so was Lewis Hamilton in Spa last year, who also won the race. Three other drivers scored wins in their 200th races: Michael Schumacher (2004 European Grand Prix), Button (2011 Hungarian Grand Prix) and Nico Rosberg (2016 Singapore Grand Prix).

By winning the first two races of 2018 Vettel has gone one better than he did last year, when he took a win and a second place. This bodes well for his championship chances: The last time a driver won the first two races of a season but didn’t win the championship was 36 years ago, when Alain Prost’s Renault proved too unreliable for take him to the 1982 crown.

Hamilton survived a controversial clash with Max Verstappen to score points for the 27th race in a row. That equals the record held by Kimi Raikkonen, which Hamilton could break in Shanghai this weekend.

While Hamilton sustained his streak of scoring points, Marcus Ericsson will be relieved to end his point-less run. He came home ninth in Bahrain, which would otherwise have been his 50th consecutive race without a point.

Valtteri Bottas set the fastest lap of the race for the fourth time in his career, which means he now has as many as Sergio Perez, as well as Jean Alesi, Jo Siffert, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Patrick Depailler.

Drivers’ Chosen Tyres

Championship Standings

Duke · Post by **Duke** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:25 pm

Wow the SC has reset this race.
C'mon Dan you can win this.

Dr. Pain · Post by **Dr. Pain** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:32 pm

Dr. Pain · Post by **Dr. Pain** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:52 pm

Shit HOT!

Duke · Post by **Duke** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:52 pm

Fark Yeah, those overtakes were breathtaking!!!

Verstappen is a twat & Vettel threw the bath out with the bath water. Lol

nutty · Post by **nutty** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:09 pm

fucking amazing shit!! get in there daniel

Montey · Post by **Montey** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:10 pm

Wow... what a race finish!!!!

DexterPunk · Post by **DexterPunk** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:13 pm

That was bloody epic. What a drive from Dan!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Post by **norbs** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:16 pm

Dan brakes for T14 at T15. Jesus.

Blessed sounds like he has lost his mobile phone. Max is a dick at times. Good to see things being mixed up up front.

richo · Post by **richo** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:35 pm

Man can Danny Ric use a brake pedal or what!
Max has much to learn about clean overtaking .

Any bets on how long Brendan Hartley will have is arse packed in the Torro Rosso for?

w00dsy · Post by **w00dsy** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:42 pm

richo wrote:Man can Danny Ric use a brake pedal or what!
Max has much to learn about clean overtaking .

Any bets on how long Brendan Hartley will have is arse packed in the Torro Rosso for?

I don't think Red Bull have any decent options to replace him, which is one of the reasons he's there now. Their young driver program isn't as strong as it was a few years back.

DexterPunk · Post by **DexterPunk** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 11:16 pm

Actually really impressed with both Max and Seb in the way they handled it. Max very humbly admitting he needs to have a good look at himself and apologised to Seb. Seb actually defended Max a bit and said that mistakes happen with every driver.

I think Seb is really sick of all the media trying to create more drama than necessary. He came to Hamilton’s defence last week as well.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DexterPunk · Post by **DexterPunk** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 11:31 pm

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Post by **Big Kev** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 6:00 am

Q: Daniel, many congratulations. In winter testing, if someone had said to you “Red Bull will win a race this year before Mercedes,” what would have been your reaction?

DR: Good job. Yeah, pretty cool. Holy Testicle Tuesday!

Muppet · Post by **Muppet** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:47 pm

Lets be honest, yes it was a good race, but not epic. If that had of been Wankington McFuckface chasing from behind in his Merc, we would have said boring race.

That said, fuck you all F1 drivers, you just got Ric'd.

wabbit · Post by **wabbit** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:25 pm

Honest question are we praising people for overtaking others with fresh and faster tyres?

w00dsy · Post by **w00dsy** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:40 pm

wabbit wrote:Honest question are we praising people for overtaking others with fresh and faster tyres?

It's so common to see a quick car stuck behind a slower car but not be able to get past. It's happened in the first 2 races this year. It's refreshing to see a guy drive the ring out of the car and actually have a go. Fresh tyres or not he took the chance a few times and made it work. The only pass that was easy for him was on Kimi, the others involved something rare in F1 these days, driver input.

DexterPunk · Post by **DexterPunk** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:39 pm

Agreed. And Max had the same new tyres and buggered it up. It’s not like Dan had anything won until he made the passes stick.

I would never have said it was a boring race if Hamilton did the same. I wouldn’t have been happy about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

durbster · Post by **durbster** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:42 am

I enjoyed the race and it's always good to see RIC on the podium.

I feared another walkover after seeing the Merc's performance in pre-seasons testing but it's shaping up to be an interesting one after all. The Red Bulls just need a bit more go on the straights and we could have a three way fight.

Post by **norbs** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:13 am

Ricciardo's passing was excellent. But I wonder how many other drivers would have let him pass like Bottas did? That one was pretty wild, and i reckon Bottas deserves a lot of credit for it not ending in tears.

DexterPunk · Post by **DexterPunk** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:17 am

Yeah indeed. Perhaps smart enough from the team and Bottas to recognise that it’s not likely to happen often, and better to take the points than to push the issue.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cursed · Post by **Cursed** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:08 am

Perhaps RIC only attempted the pass because it was Bottas and he hedged his bets that he'd be sensible about it. He might not have attempted the same move on Max. That and he was probably in a groove and felt indestructible.

pixelboy · Post by **pixelboy** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:48 pm

I think Danny just got in too deep on the Botta's move and couldn't pull out.. we've all been there!

But yes I agree, he would have been more cautious with Max or Blessed!

DexterPunk · Post by **DexterPunk** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:20 pm

pixelboy wrote:I think Danny just got in too deep on the Botta's move and couldn't pull out.. we've all been there!

But yes I agree, he would have been more cautious with Max or Blessed!

Yeah indeed... a bit of ‘Hmm yeah I’ll give this a crac.... shit!! Woohoo!’ Going on there haha.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

KNAPPO · Post by **KNAPPO** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:04 pm

DexterPunk wrote:
pixelboy wrote:I think Danny just got in too deep on the Botta's move and couldn't pull out.. we've all been there!

But yes I agree, he would have been more cautious with Max or Blessed!
Yeah indeed... a bit of ‘Hmm yeah I’ll give this a crac.... shit!! Woohoo!’ Going on there haha.

In the post race interviews he said he had the move planned about 7-8 seconds before the braking zone and that he was going to go for it.

I agree the cover from Bottas took him off guard and squeezed him more to the inside than what he initially set out to be from when he begun to execute the move, but. To see he made the apex and still didnt run wide over the exit kerb to me says that he had the move and car speed judged pretty dam well. Zero margin for error in the end with the cover from Bottas tho.

A.R.S.E.